MUTUAL INTERESTS

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 104, 29 October 1935, Page 9

MUTUAL INTERESTS

AUSTRALIA AND KZ.

HINDRANCES TO TRADE

CBy Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, October 28.

Close collaboration between Australia and New Zealand in export marketing and the tourist industry was strongly advocated by Sir Frederick Stewart, Commonwealth Parliamentary Undersecretary for Re-employment, and formerly Minister of Commerce, in an interview on his arrival by the Monowai from Vancouver. He also expressed the firm opinion that both countries should make a real effort to remove present hindrances to mutual trade in agricultural products. Sir Frederick, who represented the Commonwealth Government at the Waitangi celebrations early last year, resigned the portfolio of commerce in November in order to carry out inquiries in Europe and America regarding national insurance schemes, and to lead the Australian delegation to the •international Labour conference at Geneva. "In Britain I was pleased to note that there was a growing tendency to better collaboration in marketing between Australia and New Zealand," he said. "There is a real need for this, because we make the same commodities and export them to the same consumers under the same conditions. I hold that there is the same necessity for collaboration between the two countries as between the different States of the Commonwealth," Sir Frederick said he was greatly disappointed that the differences over inter-colonial trade in onions and potatoes had not been resolved. SIMPLE MATTER AT ISSUE. "Practically every authority through- ' out the world suggests that a condition precedent to world recovery is greater elasticity in interchange of trade between nations," he continued. "If this is so, it only shows up more tragically the failure of these two neighbouring members of the British Commonwealth to. settle the simple matter at issue between them. I say 'simple' because, wih a complete knowledge of all the facts, I refuse to believe that there is any justification for the difficulty unless one is going to consider the selfishness of the producers as such, and this applies to both sides of the Tasman Sea. However, I am hoping that better counsels ,-will prevail. "As the Minister who appointed Mr. Nesbitt as Australia's representative in New Zealand, I am pleased to learn of the manner in which he has been received, and I trust that this will be one of the means by which the difficulties to which I have already referred may be removed." ATTRACTING TOURISTS. Speaking of the need to attract more overseas tourists to this part of the <*orld, Sir Frederick said that his travels had added to his knowledge of the advantages which some countries gained from a tourist harvest. There was no reason why Australia and New Zealand should not participate increasingly in it. The main difficulty clearly lay in the time occupied by sea passages. He had spent 24 days on the voyage from Vancouver to Auckland, whereas a wool steamer a few weeks ago had taken only 30 days to go from Sydney to Dunkirk, about twice the distance. It should be quite possible to reduce the time between Sydney and London to well under four weeks, and that between the • Pacific Coast. and Sydney to two and a hair weeks He knew that this would cost money arid that it would involve financial co-opera-tion between the Governments and the shipping companies. However, he believed that the results would justify what might have been considered some time ago to be very generous expendi-" ture. This question was one upon which he intended to report to the Commonwealth Government when he returned home.